By |April 2, 2013

State and local drug enforcement partnerships, heavily reliant on federal grants that have been shrinking for years, were teetering on the brink of extinction even before the recent round of automatic spending cuts known as the sequester. Now the latest cuts are threatening to push them over the cliff, reports Stateline. A prime example is the Ocmulgee, Ga., drug task force, based in a small town of 17,000.

Supported by the Byrne justice assistance grant program, the regional task force budget makes up just one-ten-thousandth of the $448 million that was distributed to all 50 states. The task force is the only law enforcement entity that investigates drug trafficking in the three counties it serves, 90 miles southeast of Atlanta. Nationwide, the Byrne grants have been cut 40 percent since 2009. Faced with yet another year of budget reductions and the looming mandatory 5 percent federal cuts, there's not a lot of optimism that the Ocmulgee task force will survive much longer. “We're just holding our breath,” said Wesley Nunn, the commander. For law enforcement agencies all over the U.S., the federal budget cut put in place under the sequester could spell disaster. Because of partisan gridlock in Washington, these Byrne grants, which states may use to pay for law enforcement, courts, crime prevention, corrections and substance abuse treatment, could be cut by at least 5 percent this year and by an additional 5 percent in each of the next nine years. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder warns those cuts may even be deeper to keep federal prisons open and FBI agents on the job.

TCR's WEEKLY Criminal Justice Newsletter is FREE! Subscribe Here

Read Next

The Justice Department's inspector general says supervisors have mishandled sexual misconduct complaints. Some perpetrators escaped discipline or were even later rewarded with bonuses or performance awards . . .

The legislation marks a major change for Republicans, who long hve embraced a law-and-order rallying cry. Now many GOP senators argue for rehabilitating more offenders rather than long-time incarceration.

An Arizona doctor argues that the government should have learned from previous federal anti-drug strategies that blanket prohibition doesn’t work. He calls for scrapping attempts to curtail opioids and replacing it with “harm reduction” policies.

Expensive medications for inmates can lead to substandard care and delays in treatment, and that may have lasting—even deadly—consequences for incarcerated individuals, writes a prison health care advocate.

Murder rates in the nation’s 30 largest cities are projected to fall by nearly 6 percent this year according to the latest data, undercutting claims that the nation is experiencing a “crime wave,” says the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

School safety commission proposes ending a federal guideline telling schools not to punish minorities at higher rates. The panel largely sidestepped issues relating to guns, although it favors arming some school personnel.